Wednesday, 6 April 2011

EDRI 9.7: On 5 April 2011, Germany's governing conservative and liberal parties agreed in a coalition committee meeting that the disputed law on Internet blocking of child abuse material "Access Impediment Act" will be dropped. The law had been enacted by the previous parliament in June 2009, but it had never been fully implemented after the newly elected coalition decided to only use the law's provisions for take-down, not those for blocking. After a one-year "trial period", the new consensus seems to be that the law will be withdrawn through a new act of the Parliament.
There is speculation that the decision could be part of a wider "package deal" that might see Germany's data retention revived after the German Constitutional Court had declared the previous data retention law partly unconstitutional, but this was denied by speakers for Germany's liberal party, FDP. German digital rights groups welcomed the decision on the blocking law, but they will be watching how it is implemented in detail. Last EDRi-gram article on Germany's Internet blocking law, reporting on the law's history and a pending constitutional challenge that would be rendered obsolete if the law is now withdrawn (23.02.2011)